Unilever and Solidaridad Partner to Improve the Lives of 1 Million People in Unilever’s Extended Supply Chains

Today Unilever and Solidaridad announced a new strategic partnership to improve the lives of 1 million people in Unilever’s extended supply chains. This agreement was signed at Unilever’s annual ‘Partner to Win Supplier Summit’ in London.

The partnership will be focused on promoting gender equity, improving agricultural and labour practices as well as supporting young agricultural entrepreneurs and land management. It will be targeted at sustainably sourcing key agricultural raw materials (tea, cocoa, sugar, palm oil, fruit and vegetables, soy and dairy) in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

This builds on Unilever’s and Solidaridad’s long track record in creating sustainable supply chains that already engage more than 150,000 smallholder farmers and workers in India, Mexico and Colombia.

As part of this new partnership agreement, both parties will share the responsibility to raise a mix of public and private grants, credit and investments to finance the smallholder farmer initiatives. Furthermore they share the cost of three full time employees to deliver the joint programme.